What's the closest you've come to a "Darwin Award" death?
I'm sure there's some good stories to hear out!
Here is mine: I was riding a packed train and of course listening to music and leaning against the sliding doors. One of the doors malfunctioned and opened but I was able to grab the other door and swing back in just enough not to get splattered by an incoming utility poll. Stupidest thing I have ever done, and now remind myself all the time to be careful of my surroundings.
8 years ago by 90boss
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I was doing some rewiring in the basement of my house when I lived in England. I thought I had isolated the correct outlets and set about cutting the cabling to one. Turned out I hadn't and sparks flew! Luckily I was using cutters with insulated handles...
That was really a close call.
Yeah, in England at that time AC was 240V.
Almost choked on a JuJube once. I think that qualifies.
I was around 10, living in on the 8th floor of a 9 story building. Generally in an elevator there are two doors - there is the door of the cabin that goes up and down, and the metal door on every floor that is generally locked until the elevator comes, and then it opens automatically.
The elevator had malfunctioned that day, and it was supposedly stuck between the 6th and 7th floor. The mechanic had opened the door on the 7th floor with his special key to check this. The elevator was much lower. But the mechanic had forgotten to lock the door back.
Queue me, young and exuberant, trying to call the elevator on the 8th floor, not working. I pull on the door, thinking that maybe it's on this floor, but the door won't budge. I go down a floor running, and pull the door with the same energy. Almost instinctively, since the door opened, I was ready to climb in. Half a step before I dropped all my weight into nothingness, I saw the terrifying darkness and stopped.
I've never been as scared in my life.
That is terrifying!
I used to drive stupidly fast and when I think about it now I realize how dumb I was. One day I was trying to pass someone on the HWY and they changed lanes on me making me jerk my steering wheel to avoid a collision which made me loose traction and slide sideways, I was able to regain control but not without the cost of soiling my pants. I realized that if I hadn't regained control I would have gone off the road and disintegrated into a thousand pieces, not to mention what would have happened if I had collided with the other motorist.
To this day I drive responsibly and check my rear and side mirrors for fast approaching cars before making any lane change, just in case someone as stupid as I was is on the road that day.
I went surfing for the first time while on vacation in Bali. I'm familiar and comfortable in the ocean and spent a large portion of my childhood boogie boarding so I didn't think much of anything of it when I had to swim out about a quarter of a mile to waves. First wave comes and sure enough, I had retained my good timing from my years of boogie boarding and get a good jump on it. If I had been riding a boogie board, it would have been a really nice ride. Except I was on a surfboard and was at the crest of the wave when it occurred to me that I didn't know what to do next. So lying on my stomach and clenching the board I rode the wave straight down, piledriving myself into the water. Cue what washing machine. The board shoots out and the worn velcro bracelet on my ankle rips off and I'm left swimming by myself. It was at this point I realized how far out I was and how the waves were a lot more powerful than originally expected. I started swimming in getting smashed by waves every 30 second. I assumed that no one could see me but right when I felt sand under my toes a life guard came up next to me to make sure I was okay. A little late but I was glad he was there. I rested for about a half hour and stayed in the white water for the rest of the day. Lesson learned.
When I was young I tried to vacuum up dirty water out of the dogs bowl. When I realized my mistake, I went to wipe it up. I shocked myself pretty badly.
Snowboarding. Me and a couple buddies thought it would be a good idea to go in the out of bounds areas. I wiped out and got stuck in a tree well and luckily one of them saw me fall in and got help. Let's just say that I won't be doing that again.
The first time I cut down a tree with a chainsaw, I learned about widowmakers. The tree broke in half. The bottom half went exactly where I aimed it. The top half landed on my head.
I waded into fast-moving water despite cautionary tales from my family. The river picked me up, and I'm lucky it let go of me. I was near a dam, so the water was incredibly cold. I nearly pooped my waders.